Saturday, August 2, 2014

Discover the best Methods and Retort Time Tables for Home Retort in Pouches




 CHEFTALK

Discover the best methods for home retort in pouches

The best time of the year to start your retort activities is here. Products are in abundance and at its lowest prices. Time therefore to get started.
Several request for a chart of retort times for various products has prompted us to publish information about retort times for pouch retort.

Pouch retort has a significant advantage over retort in cans and jars for quality and convenience reasons. Pouch retort times are 10% to 25% higher than can or jar retort, moist content in finished pouch retort products have been proven to be 10% to 15% higher compared to can and jar retort. Overall quality and consumer acceptance of pouch retort products have been found to be of higher levels during sensory evaluation tests.

In addition are retort pouches environmental friendlier, take up less storage space and are easy to purchase compared to cans and jars. www.vacupack.com  for USA and www.vacupack.ca for Canada.


Starting the retort process

Storage Saver
Pre-preparing products for retort is the key to a good finished product. Ensure all working surfaces and utensils are clean. The products to be retorted must be as fresh as possible. When food is pre-cooked before the retort process ensure that is has cooled down preferably to refrigeration temperatures prior to retorting.
Ensure that sharp objects (bones) that may be present in food are removed or positioned such that they pose no danger to damaging the pouches.

Preparing your pressure canner
You will need 2 quarts of water in your pressure cooker for all retort products.
Pressure and retort times are important, pressure and times given below are meant for an altitude of 2000 ft or less, if you happen to live at an higher altitude you need to apply one (1) pound of pressure  for each additional 2000 ft. The cooking times remain the same!

Retort & Vacuum Sealing
The retort canning bags must be vacuum sealed before attempting to can.  The air evacuation keeps the bags from blowing out the side seams while canning.  A commercial chamber vacuum sealer with retort capability is required.  http://vacupack.com/commercial-vacuum-sealers-packers


Meat:
For all beef, poultry, pork, lamb, veal, venison, other game meat, (four legged or birds), offal’s (liver, heart, tongue) raw or pre-cooked (stews, boiled meats, sausages, cold cuts), follow the guide below: This is a personal guide, the official time and temperatures have not been published by the FDA. Can at your own risk. 

Meats can be pre-prepared seasoned or marinated before retort, ensure to allow cooling before retort.


Pressure Pounds:
½ pt< = (2 or 4 oz retort)
pint = (8 oz retort)
Quart = (16 oz retort)

Canner Pressure 10 LBS
65 min.
75 min.
90 min.




       
This pressure and timing guide ensures that you have reached a core temperature of 121 Celsius or 249.8 F at the coldest point inside the product as per the schematic picture below for the time period necessary to eliminate all contaminating bacteria including their spores.



           Solids only                               with liquid content

Seafood:
Retort times for different types of seafood vary even though the pressure remains consistent with meat retort at 10 Lbs.
Seafood can be seasoned and fried before retort to add extra flavor. Do not cook the product all the way through, the retort process takes care of that. Add sauce or other additives e.g. herbs and spices to the pouch to your liking. 


Pressure pounds:  
½ pt< = (2 or 4 oz retort)
pint = (8 oz retort)
Quart = (16 oz retort)
Canner pressure 10 LBS



Clams and oysters
85 min
95 min
110 min
Crab meat      
95 min
105 min
120 min
Fish (General)
100 min
110 min
125 min
Lobster
100 min
110 min
125 min
Salmon
110 mi
120 min
130 min
Shrimp (wet pack)
60 min
75 min
100 min
Shrimp (dry pack)
110 min
120min
130 min
Tuna
110 min          
120 min          
140 min

                                                   
Vegetables
Vegetable retort times vary quite significant based on the nature of the vegetable (hard, semi-hard or soft) the guide below is based on raw vegetables. Season before retort, salt serves as a preservative and flavor.


Pressure pounds:
½ pt< = (2 or 4 oz retort)
    pint = (8 oz retort)
Quart = (16 oz retort)

Canner Pressure 10 LBS




Asparagus
20 min
25 min
55 min
Baked Beans
75 min
85 min
90 min
Beans, Lima
40 min
45 min
60 min
Beans, Snap    
25 min
30 min
35 min
Beets, baby    
30 min
35 min
55 min
Carrots, young           
20 min
25 min
30 min
Corn, whole kernel
60 min
65 min
85 min
Corn on the cob
60 min
65 min
75 min
Eggplant         
35 min
40 min
45 min
Greens, all kinds
60 min
60 min
70 min
Kohlrabi
30 min
35 min
40 min
Okra   
25 min
30 min
45 min
Parsnip, turnips           
30 min
30 min
35 min
Peas, green    
30 min
30 min
N.A.
Peas, Black eyed
30 min
30 min
N.A.
Peppers, Pimento
10 min
10 min
N.A.
Pumpkin, smashed
75 min
75 min
90 min
Summer squash, Zucchini
20 min
35 min
40 min
Squash, winter (cubed)
50 min
55 min
90 min
Succotash
60 min
75 min
90 min
Sweet potatoes
75 min
90 min
90 min
Tomatoes
10 min
10 min
10 min
        

Fruits  

Use fruits that are on their peak of quality.
Do not use over ripe fruits and retort only as much as you can handle during the period of time you spent on canning.
Clean the fruits thoroughly by rinsing to remove any dirt and/or chemicals present on the fruits, dirt contains some of the bacteria that are very hard to kill. Do not soak fruits for a very long time as this result in loss of nutrients and flavor.
Except for berries, all regular fruits can be processed under a pressure of 5 LBS for 10 minutes.
Berries and blended fruits e.g apple sauce can be processed using 5 LBS for 8 minutes.   


Syrup may be added to the fruits and below is a guide how to balance sugar syrup.
Light syrup
2 cups sugar
4 cups water
yield    5 cups
Medium syrup
3 cups sugar
4 cups water
yield    5 ½  cups
Heavy syrup   
3 ¾  cups sugar       
4 cups water
yield    6 ½  cups

No scientific data from FDA or USDA is available on home canning and the above information is a guide only and no authorized data.  

PMG holds no responsibility for misuse of the information provided and is void of any liability. Home canning is at your own risk.

For PMG by: Marinus Hoogendoorn 


1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thank you for this guide. It is nice to have this to come back to whenever I need to. I love the bit about marinating your meats prior to retort.